Get Updates
Mathematica Study Examines Curricula’s Effects on Reading Comprehension
One Program Boosts Reading Achievement
Media Advisory: May 5, 2010
Contact: Amy Berridge, (609) 945-3378
The Issue: As students reach the upper elementary grades, they transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” In order to grow and achieve as learners, students need to be able to understand what they read. Disadvantaged students often lack vocabulary and comprehension strategies to organize and acquire knowledge from text, which can make “reading to learn” a challenge. However, there is little research on the effectiveness of reading comprehension programs geared towards the informational text students increasingly encounter in the upper elementary grades.
The Study: To help close this research gap, Mathematica Policy Research conducted a study supported by the Institute of Education Sciences in the US Department of Education over the course of two school years evaluating the effectiveness of four supplemental reading comprehension programs in helping disadvantaged fifth graders improve their reading comprehension. The study used an experimental design, in which schools were randomly assigned to use an intervention or not. The four programs used by schools and teachers were:
- Project CRISS (developed by Creating Independence Through Student-Owned Strategies) focuses on five keys to learning—background knowledge, purpose setting, author’s craft (which involves using text structure to improve comprehension), active learning, and metacognition. The program is designed to be used each day during language arts, science, or social studies periods.
- ReadAbout (developed by Scholastic Inc.) teaches students reading comprehension skills, such as author’s purpose, main idea, cause and effect, compare and contrast, summarizing, and inferences, primarily through a computer program that adapts to each student’s reading level. Students apply what they have learned to a selection of science and social studies trade books.
- Read for Real (developed by Chapman University and Zaner-Bloser) supplies teachers with a six-volume set of books to teach reading strategies to students. The books can be used before, during, and after reading (such as previewing, activating prior knowledge, setting a purpose, main idea, graphic organizers, and text structures). Each unit includes vocabulary, fluency, and writing activities.
- Reading for Knowledge (developed by the Success for All Foundation) makes extensive use of cooperative learning strategies and a process called SQRRRL (Survey, Question, Read, Restate, Review, Learn).
The Findings: The study found positive impacts for one of the four curricula. In particular, when teachers had one prior year of experience using the ReadAbout curriculum, students scored higher on a reading comprehension assessment. The score improvement is equivalent to moving from the 50th to the 59th percentile on a standardized test. The study found no improvement in reading comprehension scores for students using the other three curricula.
Quote: “This is the largest, most rigorous study to date on this issue and helps fill an important gap in our knowledge of the effectiveness of programs designed to help children better understand the informational text that they read,” said Susanne James-Burdumy, associate director of research at Mathematica and co-author of the report. “This evaluation, conducted in real-world conditions, gives educators important new information about the effectiveness of four curricula designed to improve student reading comprehension.”
The Report: “Effectiveness of Selected Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions: Findings from Two Student Cohorts.” Susanne James-Burdumy, John Deke, Julieta Lugo-Gil, Nancy Carey, Alan Hershey, Russell Gersten, Rebecca Newman-Gonchar, Joseph Dimino, Kelly Haymond, and Bonnie Faddis, May 2010.
About Mathematica: Mathematica Policy Research, a nonpartisan research firm, provides a full range of research and data collection services, including program evaluation and policy research, survey design and data collection, research assessment and interpretation, and program performance/data management, to improve public well-being. Its clients include federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector and international organizations. The employee-owned company, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Ann Arbor, Mich., Cambridge, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C., has conducted some of the most important studies of education, health care, international, disability, family support, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policies and programs.